Ainge: Josh Jackson cancelled workout while Celtics were flying cross-country to him

[tombattor]

If he is way better than Tatum(which I think he will be) it will be Danny's fault for getting caught up in his feelings.
BJ Armstrong is the worst agent in the league. He clearly was trying to steer Jackson elsewhere. Armstrong is always meddling and ultimately hurting his players.

I think it is safe to assume that they would have picked Jackson if he didn't pull this BS. Danny was pissed rightfully so. But you think the Warriors would rather have Brendon Jennings because Steph wouldn't work out?

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Exactly. I know everyone around here worships ainge, but passing on a prospect based on personal feelings being hurt is much less professional than Jackson not working out for one of 10+ teams that wanted to see him.

He worked out for other teams, so he's not a douche for them. Most of you're being butt hurt for ainge and yourselves and in typical Boston fashion, going on a hate campaign for this guy.

Be a f-ing man Danny!

You're assuming, I think without basis, that Danny would have selected him over Tatum had Jackson shown up for the workout.

All we know is that he and his agent canceled a workout while multiple Celtics execs were flying cross-country. And it didn't look there was any kind of effort on Jackson's part to cure that problem. So I don't blame Danny for being salty. We have no idea whether he liked Jackson more than Tatum. We heard rumors that Ainge liked both.

If Ainge really did like Tatum more, then you're right. But if there was any saltiness that affected the decision, then he didn't do his job right.

[CeltsfaninDC]

Exactly. I know everyone around here worships ainge, but passing on a prospect based on personal feelings being hurt is much less professional than Jackson not working out for one of 10+ teams that wanted to see him.

He worked out for other teams, so he's not a douche for them. Most of you're being butt hurt for ainge and yourselves and in typical Boston fashion, going on a hate campaign for this guy.

Be a f-ing man Danny!

Thats not what this is about at all. These workouts are as much to see who these kids are in person as anything - its a job interview. They've seen them play athletically, but they need to evaluate the person and in this case the person is a dick. If I was trying to hire someone and they did that to me I'd know instantly that I wouldn't want to have that person on my team. His attitude is awful and combined with him smacking a girl (and I don't care one bit about the circumstances) you can quickly see that his judgement is poor and he is incredibly immature. Its not about personal feelings, its about seeing who he IS and then determining whether you'd want him on your team. If you can't trust a guy to show up for a workout after flying across the country to see him then how could you trust him to show up for practice or be a team player.

I see that you're trying to shed a negative light on him. Just as I said in the previous post. There is no indication that he ever skips practices or not a team player. These are all assumptions.

He threatened a girl and vandalized a car..... is that an assumption too? Stop it with the "he's just misunderstood" nonsense.

[KL78192020]

Although a **** move it makes sense for him not wanting Boston to draft him. He would be stuck behind Crowder, Brown, and potentially Hayward. Whereas in Phoenix here can get more minutes.

[CeltsfaninDC]

We all have to move on. But saying he smacked a girl (which didn't happen) and isn't dependable to show up to practice or be a team player is BS.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2017/03/16/affidavit-josh-jackson-threatened-to-beat-womens-player/99270048/ Sounds like a real standup kid. I'm sure you'd want him dating your daughter, right?

[truth18]

Why the **** do we have a Jackson defense force?

Get your **** basketball priorities in order. God damn. Dude is scum.

[tombattor]

Thats not what this is about at all. These workouts are as much to see who these kids are in person as anything - its a job interview. They've seen them play athletically, but they need to evaluate the person and in this case the person is a dick. If I was trying to hire someone and they did that to me I'd know instantly that I wouldn't want to have that person on my team. His attitude is awful and combined with him smacking a girl (and I don't care one bit about the circumstances) you can quickly see that his judgement is poor and he is incredibly immature. Its not about personal feelings, its about seeing who he IS and then determining whether you'd want him on your team. If you can't trust a guy to show up for a workout after flying across the country to see him then how could you trust him to show up for practice or be a team player.

I see that you're trying to shed a negative light on him. Just as I said in the previous post. There is no indication that he ever skips practices or not a team player. These are all assumptions.

He threatened a girl and vandalized a car..... is that an assumption too? Stop it with the "he's just misunderstood" nonsense.

HAHA. Ok. He's not misunderstood. He's got some douche characteristics. I just hope Danny didn't let his personal feelings influence his judgement and Tatum is the real deal. But I'm not confident that he'll be better than Fultz and Jackson.

[hickfromfrenchlick]

Exactly. I know everyone around here worships ainge, but passing on a prospect based on personal feelings being hurt is much less professional than Jackson not working out for one of 10+ teams that wanted to see him.

He worked out for other teams, so he's not a douche for them. Most of you're being butt hurt for ainge and yourselves and in typical Boston fashion, going on a hate campaign for this guy.

Be a f-ing man Danny!

You're assuming, I think without basis, that Danny would have selected him over Tatum had Jackson shown up for the workout.

All we know is that he and his agent canceled a workout while multiple Celtics execs were flying cross-country. And it didn't look there was any kind of effort on Jackson's part to cure that problem. So I don't blame Danny for being salty. We have no idea whether he liked Jackson more than Tatum. We heard rumors that Ainge liked both.

If Ainge really did like Tatum more, then you're right. But if there was any saltiness that affected the decision, then he didn't do his job right.

I guess the problem is you're putting Danny on blast based on an assumption.

Assuming that he did forego picking Jackson because of what happened, I agree and disagree with you. I think it's fair to assume that Danny was going out to Sacramento to talk to Jackson because while he liked his talent, he had serious concerns about his character and maturity and really wanted to sit down face-to-face with the guy who he was thinking about making one of the faces of his franchise. But Jackson never gave him or Brad that chance. And it seems like they never even spoke on the phone!

It's not like this was a case where a player didn't want to workout because he wanted to force his way to another team. You should expect that if you draft them, they'll show up and play (unless their name is Manning.) This was a kid who'd threatened a young woman and caused property damage. You want to talk to people like that before you make them a top-3 pick that's going to be scrutinized for years by every nitwit on RealGM.

I get that you're frustrated because you significantly preferred Jackson to Tatum but I'd give Danny the benefit of the doubt here, both in terms of his professionalism and talent evaluation. If Jackson turns out to be better than Tatum and a model citizen, then the 2017 draft will be a black mark against Danny.

Go Big Red.

[cl2117]

Get your **** basketball priorities in order.

My new favorite catch phrase for this board.

[righterwriter]

Now THAT is a way to not get yourself drafted by a team. Devious agents for that man.

[Brett43]

Danny Ainge values character.

Jacko cancelling the workout may not have, by itself, caused Danny to pass. But it certainly didn't help. He is probably willing to overlook and forgive a few past indiscretions, but when they begin to pile up, they can't be ignored. You don't want to draft another Latrell Sprewell or (god forbid) Aaron Hernandez.

[Novocaine]

I would never allow a player of mine to workout for Boston unless he was a big or in the bubble to be drafted. Not until Ainge explained to me what would the plan be and was persuasive enough. What is Tatum's position on Boston's depth draft right now? 6th wing? That basically means "spend the year rotting in the G-League".

[Spin Move]

If your Jackson's agent and you want him to get rookie of the year, tons of shot and ton's of PT right away you don't want boston to draft you unless you are a highly skilled 5 because we have solid vets at every other position and Bradley does not play rookies that much. It is Danny's job to look past that and make the best pick with the info he has available, I think he thought tatum was a better fit for the team he think he will have after the summer.

[threrf23]

It's tough to completely judge him for this without knowing all the context - i.e. when the work out was scheduled, why it was cancelled, was he or his agent in charge. But for DA to come out and talk about it like this, after passing on an opportunity to draft and then trade Jackson for (possibly) Tatum and filler, it was probably bad.

I also hadn't liked the tweet that Jackson posted & deleted after the Fultz trade. In fairness to him, he comes as unnecessarily ruthless on the court as much as off the court, which can work in his favor as long as he's playing for your team. But he wasn't completely a slam dunk prospect to begin with, and top HS prospects who are a full year old for their class often have hidden issues.

I don't blame us at all for passing on him, although I do believe he was likely the BPA. From a pre-draft scouting profile on Aaron Hernandez:

“Self-esteem is quite low; not well-adjusted emotionally, not happy, moods unpredictable, not stable, doesn’t take much to set him off, but not an especially jumpy guy,” the scout said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/06/21/drafting-hernandez-was-always-risk-reward-proposition-for-patriots/3HWjGvTSTOOOs5BtpvFDcJ/story.html

[Celtics_35]

Lets give Danny credit here, although his drafting record isn't flash, he did nab Jaylen Brown last season in a draft/lottery full of busts. And he got criticisized from some at the time, but i generally think Jaylen has all star calibre ceiling and will be a top 2 player from that draft. Tatum is a solid citizen and a hard worker who also is a decent, humble character, which i think is the personification of many of our legends (Hondo and Bird etc).

Just imagine all the headaches Lavar Ball will cause to Lonzo and The Lakers (for example). Man i'm glad we don't have that problem lol

[Fencer reregistered]

not only did he cancel mid-flight but Ainge refuted Jackson's story that he spoke to Brad Stevens and the coaching staff. Danny said that never happened. So in addition to lacking personal integrity Jackson is also a liar. Consider this though: the Celts were willing to fly across country right before the draft to see Jackson. Does that really sound like a team that was 100% sold on Tatum? If Tatum was truly their number 1 all along why did they try so hard to see Jackson? My take is that Jackson was their top guy and they pivoted to Tatum after it became clear ( on the airplane!!) that Jackson did not want to be a Celtic and was effing with them. Personally I think the Celts blew this draft; Fultz was the guy but Danny fell victim to the smartest man in the room syndrome and thought he knew better than everyone else. Fultz to me is clearly the best player in this draft and that pick we got from Philly is going to seem meaningless when Fultz is an all star in 2 years and Tatum is a good but not great player.

When did the Sacramento flight actually occur?

[Froob]

Why the **** do we have a Jackson defense force?

Get your **** basketball priorities in order. God damn. Dude is scum.

I want to get tix to the Phoenix game to boo him.

[Jingles]

Ainge is the most thorough guy in the league and basically a GM-robot but sure he made this huge decision based on his personal non-basketball feelings.

[ParticleMan]

I would never allow a player of mine to workout for Boston unless he was a big or in the bubble to be drafted. Not until Ainge explained to me what would the plan be and was persuasive enough. What is Tatum's position on Boston's depth draft right now? 6th wing? That basically means "spend the year rotting in the G-League".

if a guy is afraid of competition and just wants everything handed to him he can take a hike. not a celtic.

[leper-con]

I would never allow a player of mine to workout for Boston unless he was a big or in the bubble to be drafted. Not until Ainge explained to me what would the plan be and was persuasive enough. What is Tatum's position on Boston's depth draft right now? 6th wing? That basically means "spend the year rotting in the G-League".

if a guy is afraid of competition and just wants everything handed to him he can take a hike. not a celtic.

I think this highlights a bigger issue. This is the second straight draft where we've had the #3 and the #1 and #3 and we've had guys refuse to work out here.
Dunn last year, Jackson and BAll this year.
Everyone was clamoring to work out for LA, even though they were locked into Ball.

[TommyPointGawd]

The fact that people in here are comparing him to Aaron Herandez says it all. You guys are absolutely cooked. Hopefully Tatum will be better at basketball, but even if he's not by the time we figure it out. Jackson will have 3 or 4 homicides by then amirite?